Hi guys, First time poster but I've been lurking for quite awhile. I was curious as to what the consensus conclusion was as to why quarters are so unproductive to coin roll search? I've read thousands of posts, and tried the search function but have been unable to find much information. I realize my 11 box sample is so small as to be statistically irrelevant, but it seems as though everyone seems to think quarters are lousy to search. I find many 65's but no 64 or before? It makes little sense to me since the 64 quarters are only marginally noticeably different. They compare similarly to dimes and I average about 1 silver per box on dimes. Possibly quarters are so highly circulated that they have so many more chances to be noticed in circulation and pulled? Or something more nefarious, that they are being actively pulled? What does everyone else think?
Someone from another forum who has 25 years experience in searching rolls said he averages one silver quarter out of every 10,000 quarters searched. You've gone through 22,000 quarters so I must say you have had really bad luck. It sounds like you have gone through bank wrapped rolls (BWR). I have heard some companies that roll and box coins have started removing silver coins (supposedly out in Arizona, for example) so this could explain why you haven't found any in the boxes you've gone through. I recommend buying customer wrapped rolls (CWR) instead. You've probably seen these posts but you can read about my recent findings and my discussion about finding silver quarters here http://www.cointalk.com/t10176-1635/#post1598432 and here http://www.cointalk.com/t10176-1635/#post1598722
Customer wrapped rolls seem to yield better results for me. My bank holds all CWR turned in to them for me. Sometimes I get lucky and sometimes not, but over all, I do much better with CWR over BWR. To be good to the next roll searcher, I always mark searched rolls with "searched-no silver".
That's a nice courtesy but personally, I wouldn't bother writing that on rolls of quarters or dimes. Reason I say that is because there are, relatively speaking, so few roll searchers out there for denominations other than half dollars. I went to a bank the other day and to my chagrin the tellers were emptying CWR quarters into a bag. They said it's okay because they have tons of rolled coins available for me. One of the tellers told me she has taken in thousands of dollars in rolled coins over the last few weeks. I asked her if anyone has been buying them and to my surprise she said no. At other banks I've been to, the tellers are often quite thankful when I come in to take rolled coins off their hands because no one else wants them. Come to think of it, the lack of interest in checking rolled coins for silver with the general populous could well explain why silver dimes have a reputation for being so common and easily found.
Just a little side note, Box number 13 finally yielded my first silver quarter. A 1964 grimy black Washington. Still looked beautiful to me!
Most have been picked out due to the size and common use of the coin. Dimes are used a lot but small and halves are not used very much but are big. Bigger size and heavy use means less silver to be found.
I would think that many places that have change machines generate quarters where they easily could have been picked clean that way.
It's a lot easier to see the white edge of a silver quarter than a smaller silver dime. It's also far easier to hear the "silver jingle" of a silver quarter because of it's larger mass. Much easier to notice quarters all around!
